Cherry Hill’s OPRA Fight Against a Journalist Has Cost Taxpayers $5,346 in Less Than Two Months – And the Meter Is Still Running

If you’ve been following our updates on the Cherry Hill matter, you already know we’ve been going back and forth with the District in trying to obtain documents related to their lawsuit against journalist Ben Shore.

Some context:  

The Cherry Hill School District’s lawsuit against Ben Shore, Shore Investigates, and Daniel Shore is over OPRA requests that were submitted to the District.  OPRA is a law that allows the public to request records from public entities, and it often used by investigative outlets to inform communities about what their government is doing.  

In its complaint, the District is arguing that the requests were numerous, burdensome and disruptive to District operations and has sought court relief limiting future OPRA requests while raising concerns about a Shore Investigates records-request portal.

Shore’s attorney has argued the case should be dismissed and has characterized the lawsuit as an improper attempt to chill public-records activity.

We got a partial response to our request today (legal invoices in connection with the District’s suit) which show that the Cherry Hill School Board was billed at least $5,346.58 in legal fees and costs through March 2026 in connection with Cherry Hill Township BOE v. Shore Investigates, et al.

The first invoice covers services through February 28, 2026, totaling $4,070.08. The second invoice covers services through March 31, 2026 and totals $1,276.50.

Combined, the records produced show at least $5,346.58 billed in less than two months.

Now this is where it gets interesting.

We also asked for records that were already provided in response to OPRA requests for 2025 and January/February 2026. We then narrowed the request to only the records produced, not the requests themselves, as a way of reducing the District’s need to redact.

In its response Cherry Hill reported that it doesn’t maintain “a tracking record that identifies the exact number of OPRA requests” received during that period and does not maintain “a central database of OPRA requests and responses.”

The District estimated that locating and assembling the records would require approximately 40 hours of work by an administrative assistant at $39.76 per hour, resulting in a proposed special service charge of $1,590.40.

So a District that has already billed taxpayers at least $5,346.58 for OPRA-related litigation is also telling the public that reviewing the District’s own OPRA production history would require another four-figure charge.

Copy of Legal Invoices